Prompt: “It was the kind of Friday that gave new meaning to the phrase ‘TGIF’.”
Twelve minutes to go.
At this point, Jesse was pretty sure that none of them were going to leave this building alive. They were “supposed” to make it to midnight to do the challenge, but what the others didn’t know – and he did – was that nobody on one of the teams was actually supposed to win.
—
He’d found out by accident, three days ago. In the bathroom, he’d been minding his own business when a phone rang in one of the stalls and someone answered.
“Yeah?” he heard. A muffled male voice was on the other end, but he couldn’t make out the response.
“Yeah, I know. Three days. They won’t know.” A pause. “Yeah, of course.”
Jesse at this point was wondering what was going to happen. There was only one thing he knew was going to happen in three days, and it was the teambuilding exercise that half the building was signed up for. Supposed to be a chance to win a very nice company car, as well as other prizes, it was probably the most popular after-hours event since the last New Year’s party where Susan and Jamie had broken up in the middle of the dance floor. Trainwrecks were always a draw.
But his thoughts were drawn back to the phone conversation after the latest pause. “The supplies have been placed already, and the teams have been set up. It will seem random to them, they won’t know that it’s their last day with the company.”
Another pause.
“Well, yeah, you know what I meant.”
A slight awkward chuckle.
“I would rather not talk about it here. We’ll meet one more time before it happens.”
With that he got off the phone, and Jesse had the quick choice to pretend he hadn’t heard anything or just own it. He chose the former and closed the door suddenly, pretending he was just walking in. He wasn’t sure if it would work but there weren’t a lot of options with 2 seconds of notice.
It seemed to work. A well dressed mid-level executive stepped from the stall and went to wash his hands, completely ignoring the presence of anyone else in the room. Jesse moved to take the other stall, trying to catch his breath. Was there anything he could do? What were they planning?
—
Well, he’d not thought of anything in time and here they were. He was going to call out sick but figured that would be too obvious, and he didn’t know how they were going to split up the teams, so it was best to play along and then maybe try to warn the others.
Ten minutes. It was supposed to start at 9p.m. and be over at midnight, after which they’d be getting a day off to recuperate. Supposedly.
Maybe nothing was going to happen, and he’d misheard? But the feeling of anxiety in the pit of his stomach. He found himself eyeing the exits as if he had not been working in this building every day for the past three years, didn’t have them memorized. Nothing seemed out of order.
He casually went over to one of the doors, and tried it. The door to the stairwell was unlocked. Well that was good, in case of an emergency. Could he move?
The rest of the group, oblivious, had been chatting and waiting for things to start. Some were tired, half dozing in the corners. They’d been asked to turn in their phones “just for the first part” so one or two were going a bit crazy without the constant stimulation, having easy access to kids, etc but others were taking the opportunity to just meditate.
Jesse carefully made his way up the stairwell toward the next floor. He had almost made it to the next floor when he heard sound coming from below, and he instinctively looked for a place to hide. The only place was on this level, so he ducked through the door and, after determining it was safe there, he left the door open a crack to listen to what was going on.
TO BE CONTINUED…..
